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Sen. Brown: Centrists should not 'dictate' future of public option
Liberal Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said Sunday morning that a small group of centrist Senate Democrats should not "dictate" the form of the public option during the debate over healthcare reform.
Brown, a supporter of a strong public option, said that liberals in the caucus should not cater to centrists on the government-run, public healthcare option even though their votes might be needed to invoke final cloture on the bill, a measure that requires the support of 60 senators.
has this much support, that it is not going to be in it," Brown said on CNN's "State of the Union" the morning after the Senate moved forward on its first procedural motion on the bill. "They will have their chance to [get what they want] in the amendment process."
Brown's words come as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Saturday night said he is open to negotiations with a group of centrists, which include Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), on a public option compromise, but continued to stand behind the his version of the plan, which would allow states to opt out.
The group has worked with Senate Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who is a liberal, and Sen. Tom Carper (D-
Del.) to craft a compromise.
"First of all, I support a strong public option," Reid said after the motion to proceed passed on Saturday night. Reid. "I welcome Sens. Schumer, Landrieu and Carper, who Sen. Landrieu said they're working together to find a public option that's acceptable to all Democrats."
But Brown said that efforts to cater to centrists in the end may not be necessary because they may, in the end, support the cloture motion regardless of the public option's form.
"They don't want to be on the wrong side of history," he said. "I don't think they want to go back and say, on a procedural vote, I killed the most important [bill] in my political career."
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